The Hunger Project-Peru

April-September 2007
By: Tarcila Rivera Zea, Director, Chirapaq

Empowering Indigenous Women of Peru to Achieve the MDGs

The Hunger Project works in partnership with Chirapaq through a four-prong strategy to provide capacity building, networking and programmatic support through a network of 44 indigenous women’s organization across the country. Some highlights of this period include:

• Women in La Mar won the presidency of their local government oversight committee and the vice presidency of the anti-poverty committee, and succeeded in having environmental regulations strengthened.
• Women in Lucanas launched new income generating activities in partnership with local authorities.
• In Huamanga, women launched a campaign for gender equality in partnership with the Ministry for women and social development.
• In Anta, women created a new radio program on women’s rights and mobilized their communities for new food production programs.
• In Ica, indigenous women displaced by political violence formed alliances with other women’s groups and launched campaigns to halt discrimination against them.

 

    

At the national level, Chirapaq mobilized women to participate in three national forums: the civil society forum for follow-up on the government’s Equal Opportunity Plan, the forum for forest development and the national directorate for community education.

     

At the international level, Chirapaq continues to provide leadership at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples and the South American Continental Network of Indigenous Women.

Here is a brief summary of activities during the past six months in the four strategic thrusts.

1. Capacity Building of Indigenous Women Leaders

• Training of 111 women leaders on participation in decentralized government.
• Training of 50 leaders in strategic planning for social organizations.
• Support for individual member organizations in creating plans on diverse subjects such as the impact of free trade, bilingual education and human rights.

2. Food Security

• Support for 30 community food security promoters, with a special focus on reducing micronutrient malnutrition.

3. Education of children and adolescents

• Follow-through on our plan for creating a truly bilingual education system in the Ayacucho region, we met with educational authorities and teachers to create specific proposals, resulting in a firm cooperation agreement.
• Organized a bilingual education methodological workshop with the National University and the Federation of Mothers Clubs.
• Held trainings with 472 indigenous students on reclaiming their indigenous identity, creativity and self-esteem.

    

4. Political and Cultural Advocacy

• Presented proposals to the Governor of Ayacucho to make Quechua and Ashaninka official languages.
• Presented plans to UNFPA to ensure inclusion of indigenous people in the 2007 National Census.
• Organized the Fourth International Workshop on Indigenous Communication and Development including representatives of Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Chile and Paraguay.
• Developed new audio-visual modules and presented them to 1,200 members of civil society organizations.

In addition, Chirapaq has led the Sub-regional South American Network of Indigenous Women for the past three years with the mandate to follow-through on the agenda created at the 2004 Fourth Continental Meeting of Indigenous Women. In the run-up to the Fifth Continental Meeting recently held in Canada, we documented and presented the achievements of South American women during this period.